Howard Wood

Chair

Howard was born in 1954 and has lived on the Isle of Arran since the age of 14. He has been diving the seas around Arran and Scotland since 1973. Since 2003 he has spent the majority of his time volunteering with COAST. He has an extensive knowledge of the marine environment in the Clyde has created a photographic and video archive of Arran marine life.

As the Chair of COAST he provides strategic leadership to the organisation on fisheries issues and has spent many years building relations with the various sections of the Clyde fishing industry. Howard was involved in writing marine management proposals to the Scottish Government, including the final Arran Marine Regeneration Trial proposal of February 2005. These led to the creation of a No Take Zone in Lamlash Bay designated in 2008. He was also a key primary source of marine survey records supporting the COAST South Arran Marine Protected Area proposal designated in 2014. Since designation he has led baseline surveys of the area. He has attended many meetings with Government, Scottish Natural Heritage, Marine Scotland and fishermens' associations and has also appeared before Parliamentary Committees on a number of occasions.

Since founding COAST in 1995 COAST has won an Observer Ethical Award in 2008, a Nature of Scotland Award for Marine Conservation in 2014. Howard received the Goldman Environmental Prize in April 2015 for his work with COAST over 20 years.